In Harahan, population 9,000, the biggest line item in the municipal budget is the Police Department. The police chief is one of the most powerful positions in the government, responsible for ensuring Harahan keeps its reputation as a sleepy bedroom community.

In the April 5 election for police chief, an opening created when Mac Dickinson stepped down, voters will choose among candidates who stress the tried-and-true methods that have kept the streets safe and those who say they will use their experience outside of Harahan to take a fresh look from an outsider's perspective.

Former Chief Peter Dale, who left when he was term-limited in 2010, said he would lead Harahan police as he did before. "We would do basically the same things we had done," Dale said. "We had Harahan as one of the safest cities. ... I don't know what their ideas are, but I got plenty that work."

Al Majeau, assistant chief in the Dickinson administration, said he was forced to clean up the shop after Dale left. Responsible for training officers under Dickinson, Majeau said he often inherited ineffective officers. With a master's degree in public administration, Majeau said he is better versed than any candidate to modernize "In many ways, I am the fresh face," he said. "We changed the department."

All candidates have stressed the need to improving the Police Department's relationship with residents, a move that is often called "community policing." And that's what Darlene Schwartz says that she has the most experience doing, as the former community relations officer for Harahan and founder of a program to reach out to students in the schools. "Everyone can talk about what they want to do and are going to do. I have already done it. Talk is cheap," Schwartz said.

The candidates also stress their experience working with a tight budget, drafted by the mayor and approved by the City Council. But as a former council member himself, Tim Walker might have the most experience doing so. In addition to his career as a police officer in New Orleans, Walker served eight years on the Harahan council member, leaving to lead an office in the state Department of Agrculture and Forestry with a staff of 15. To Walker, his experience as an elected leader shows him capable of getting the job done. "To me, the most important thing is accountability. Is the chief accountable for his actions? I will be."

Training

Training officers is a common theme among the candidates, but not all think more is needed. "Most of the officers over there are well trained," Schwartz said. "It sounds good - and I'm an advocate for training - I just don't want to waste our money."

Dale disagreed. He said officers "lack" training that they need. He said he he would pursue in-house training after hours, without a knock to the budget, by compensating officers with extra time off rather than over-time.

Majeau said officers were not correctly trained on Dale's watch. He said some used radar guns to detect speeders without being properly certified, costing Harahan time and convictions.

Walker proposed free training, on the job. Specifically, he said, officers must be trained in how to deal with the public.

Patrol

The relationship between officers and residents has become the major issue that candidates see with today's police force, as officers tend to leave Harahan after serving for several years. If that continues, how can residents learn to trust them, to share tips, to express concerns?

"This is not Harahan penitentiary," Dale said, repeating a line he said he used to tell new officers, to encourage them to treat residents with respect. He said he was criticized for having a "Mayberry police department." But to Dale, that's the joy of police work in Harahan. "I feel blessed to have had a Mayberry police department." To keep it so, he suggested more interaction in the schools, with the DARE program and officers eating lunch with students.

But Schwartz said the school program she started to teach high school kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol -- the HOPE program -- could rely on a part-time officer and fill the gap more cheaply. And Schwartz said she would go further, holding regular community meetings with residents.

Majeau said he sees community policing as an unnecessary fuss, a buzzword: "It's not complicated. It's it's so they know who the hell we are," he said. "We've got to get (officers) to patrol more." He suggested officers be trained simply to stop and talk to neighbors while they patrol, and be grilled by supervisors as to what the concerns of the community are. If they could come up with none, they weren't interacting properly with residents, he said.

To survey his officers, Majeau said he would start by checking the miles on their police cars. Though the town is only 2.1 square miles, a shift can "put 70 miles on, easy," he said. He said regular evaluations of officers would keep them in check.

Other candidates suggested foot and bicycle patrols. Dale said he would start three- to four-hour bike shifts and re-implement a call for all officers to perform two walking patrols per shift. Schwartz and Walker would similarly encourage both methods.

Majeau said that bike and walking shifts slow response times for emergencies because they pull officers away from patrol cars. Dale countered that his method would not take an officer more than one block from the patrol car, and Schwartz said that even back at the police station, the chief or captain should be able to respond to an emergency immediately.

Walker said he would require full written reports from officers on their patrols, even for the smallest neighborhood nuisances, so that police have a more accurate measure of activity. "There is going to be a spike of crimes reported under me," he said. "I'm not afraid of crime stats. Where crime is being committed, you put your resources there.

Walker also raised the idea that police officers be accountable for other city services. For example, he said officers should check to see if street lights are out or stop signs are down.

Dale said he did just that when he was chief. And he said all crimes were reported during his administration, regardless of pettiness.

He said he would show the community to trust the police in part by riding the streets himself. "You have to ride around in the command car. That's what gives you your ideas. You can't just sit in an office."

A command car? Schwartz suggested that even if elected chief, she would ride the streets in a golf cart.